In a large number of sporting activities, such as tennis, hand ball, squash, racket ball, basketball, soccer, football, hockey, and other sporting activities in which there is fast movement of players and the use of a ball or other physical contact, there is a continuing danger of a participant being struck in the eye by the ball, equipment or hand of an opponent. This can result in severe injury or even, in some cases, loss of an eye.
Thus, a variety of different types of protective eyewear has been developed for each of the variety of sporting activities. Generally, the protective eyewear are formed as either eyeglasses or goggles. These prior protective eyeglasses suffer from one or more deficiencies. For example, some protective eyewear cannot be worn with a helmet. Other protective eyewear is heavy and cumbersome to wear, which causes the wearer substantial discomfort during participation in the sporting event. Many others protective eyewear are very uncomfortable to wear since they are made of a very hard rigid plastic.
Examples of various prior devices relating to protective eyewear are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,406,608 to Joyce; U.S. Pat. No. 2,504,524 to Hayward; U.S. Pat. No. 2,755,803 to Dorsey; U.S. Pat. No. 2,545,428 to Liautaud; U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,837 to Solari; U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,561 to Solari; U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,272 to Leonardi; U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,293 to Lickle; U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,837 to Leonardi; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,198 to Hunnebeck.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need for protective eyewear which is comfortable to wear and can be used in almost any sporting activity. This invention addresses these needs in the art, along with other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.